Logic, (or e^(i+pi)+1=0)
by narie the waitress
Summary: Manga fic: No one seems to ask themselves what happened to Ami when she was kidnapped by the Black Moon, so I went ahead and answered the question. And, indeed, that is a math equation you see in the title


Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply. I'm not making money from writing, and you know you don't want to sue an 11th grader with no money anyhow. Especially since I'm not trying to infract anyone's copyright on these lovely characters. Some of the lines said by Rubeus actually belong to Prince Dimando, as quoted from the Alex Glover's manga translations. The ones at the end are quoted directly from the translation to act 20, volume 6.

Knowledge of the manga version of the Black Moon arc will not hurt you. The short version is, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter get kidnapped by their Ayakashi sister counterpart (who dies during the battle) and are taken to Nemesis. You can survive if you know that much. 

There's a short glossary at the bottom, should despair strike. Understanding the math adds to the story… you don't have to ponder long upon terms you've never seen before, since there will be no sudden epiphany, but try to make some sense out of things. 

This is more of an experiment in writing than anything else… the style is strange, and changes from paragraph to paragraph; there are changes in verb tense within paragraph, leaping from past to present back to past; the storyline itself is somewhat strange, but I guess there is some sort of logic to it. I hope there is some sort of logic to it, anyhow. Which, incidentally, explains the title. Enjoy. 

Logic

(or e^(i*pi)+1 = 0)

(written by narie the waitress)

*****

e^(i*pi) = -1

*****

She is drowning in the water. It's all around her; can't see a thing, can't breathe, can't scream, can't do anything but hope it will be over soon. 

*****

Outside the watery sphere, Sailors Moon, Jupiter and Venus stand, watching in anger and helplessness as Beruche's body becomes nothing, but the sphere still lasts, still holds Mizuno Ami inside it. The Ai no Senshi aims a Rolling Heart Vibration at it, but it doesn't do anything... the blue orb absorbs it with no problem, welcomes the energy it provides and strengthens its hold on the soldier of ice.

Then he appears out of nowhere, leering at them, flaunting his catch in front of their eyes and vanishing before any of them can react.

The feeling inside them is identical to the one they experienced a week ago, when Hino Rei vanished in front of their eyes in a very similar manner.

They have no choice but to watch. Ami tries to breath inside the sphere, but they can tell that she is drowning, that she is running out of air and will not last long. As Rubeus disappears with her in tow, all three girls hope that where ever it is that he is taking her, he allows her to leave the water bubble, and that she is alive when they find her.

Because, most certainly they will. 

As they will find Rei. The Sailor Team is unstoppable, and damned be those demons from wherever it is they come from. Love and Justice will triumph over Evil. 

Always have, always will. 

It's an universal constant. 

Good Evil.

And late at night, from her room in the city, Tsukino Usagi looks at the bright, pristine Moon, veiled in clouds and shrouded in darkness. 

*****

And late at night, from his ghostly city, the spectral King of Earth looks sadly at the dark object that obscures his view of the Moon, in all of its pristine brightness, shrouded in clouds and veiled in darkness.

*****

1 equals 1

and that's all there is to it

or, if you must, you can call it the loneliest number

*****

She could breath now, and she was thankful for that. Her fuku was as dry as when she first transformed, which surprised her, because she could remember the watery prison, although she had spent a very short time inside it. And most of that time had been spent trying to breathe, anyhow, not to focus on her surroundings.

She looked around her; there was nothing of interest. The room was barren but functional: a bed in one corner, a desk, with assorted paraphernalia on top of it, on the opposite one, a chair between the two of them, a dark, thin-but-not-cheap carpet covering the ground and a door leading to who knew where. No use trying to open it, because she could hear the footsteps at the other side; quick, nervous back-and-forth pacing. They were the only sound around her. She couldn't even hear herself breathe, for some strange reason.

The room lacked a window; the light being provided by... what? Her eyes searched around the eerie room, looking for anything that radiated light, but found nothing. The ceiling was uniform, and so were the walls. Smooth and unbroken by anything, unadorned. Simply existing.

The bed was made, the clean, white sheets stretched over the mattress tightly, a pillow at the head of the bed, serenely, inviting her to lie down and rest, and to hope that when she woke up she would simply be lying on the ground, with her friends looking at her, worry and relief etched in their eyes, but nothing else.

She moved to the desk. Atop it lay scattered pieces of paper, filled with stylized katakana and hiragana, no kanji. Then diagrams of a foreign city, filled with little markings and circlings. In a corner sat a miniature chess set, as sleek and functional as anything else around her. Lacking a personality; ghostly dim. 

Her exploration of the room concluded, there was nothing for her to do except to return to her original posture: a semi heap in the ground, her back leaning against the wall, knees drawn up, hands nervously resting on her lap, head between knees.

*****

Wondering where she is, the terror of the situation beginning to permeate her defenses she pulls out her computer, and is reassured by it. She flicks it open, with a long-practiced movement, and her hands dance their silent dance over the keyboard, the screen displaying everything it is asked for as soon as it is requested. 

Let's see... the air is breathable, even if lacking in oxygen, at least according to what she is used to. But she's not going to die soon, and that's what counts. The temperature is of 15.7 degrees Celsius, pretty acceptable. The gravity is .3457 Gs. Altitude is...

Wait. Hold it. Backtrack. Rewind. Pause.

.3457 Gs??

Not good.

She is most definitively somewhere else than Earth, because gravity is a constant and on Earth it equals one, and that's all there is to it. There's no arguing it. 

She switches over to some obscure function, and asks for her current position in regards to the Sun, the Earth, the Moon and Mercury, the last one being only out of past-life homesickness. 

The computer screen flashes white for one second, and then goes pitch black. 

She hits a key, any key. No response. She closes the computer, and opens it again. No response. She lets go of it, and watches it vanish into another dimension. She pulls it back out, opens it again and is rewarded with the black screen. She tries to do that again. Nothing. And the damned thing doesn't even use Windows.

She tries to hold the tears back. She blinks quickly and holds the liquid in. Success. Her eyes are watery, but her cheeks are dry. 

The door opens, and he, the... monster who took Rei from them steps through, smiling cruelly at her, the mark on his forehead contrasting with his pale, pale skin. She looks at it carefully, and wonders why the upside down black crescent, mocking the one on her princess' forehead. She is afraid. He can overpower her, without a doubt. And he wouldn't feel the slightest remorse if he had to kill her. He'd probably be glad. She can see it in his eyes, as they stare at her with undisguised amusement, their glints of metallic cruelty sparkling for her to see. He knows she's afraid, he's happy she's afraid, and he wants to make sure she'll remain afraid. 

"Sailor Mercury... Seishin no Senshi, if you will. I am very pleased to meet you."

He is mocking her. She can see it is his eyes, his smile and in every single gesture he makes. And she wonders why he is here. What he wants from her. She can think about that forever, but ignoring him does not seem a wise option. Trying to hide her fear, she raises her head, meets his eyes and tries not to shiver. 

Swallowing nervously she replies, her voice destroying whatever show of confidence her words might have carried. "Indeed. Where is Sailor Mars?"

He looks at her disdainfully, amused by her behavior, but dances around her question. "You will come with me, Sailor Mercury."

As he leads her through the spiraling hallways of the maze they are in they are both silent, until one of the faceless people they walk by stops to say something to Rubeus. 

"Another Senshi? What do you plan to do with her, Rubeus-san?"

"The Prince will decide what he wants to do with her. I would take her directly to keep her friend company, in the core, before they die, but I want her to see the projection room first."

The other figure's eyes shine with cruelty and hatred towards Ami. "Oh, I'm sure that it will be interesting for her… "

And out of that conversation only one thing makes it past Ami's fear. 

Rei! 

Rei-chan is alive!

All she needs to do now is find her, and then they will figure out how to leave. The fact that she is most likely on a different planet is ignored by her mind, as she gives in to happy fantasies. 

She shakes her head.

And returns to reality.

Reality bites. She feels him urging her onward, making her move so he can show her even more of their perverse, twisted plan. 

But there is hope in her still. Her friends, back home. They will not allow them to succeed.

They reach another chamber, after more twists and turns through the labyrinth. 

"I don't know why I am bothering to show you this. You will not be alive to see it. And neither will you be able to tell Sailor Moon, or any of your other friends about it. 

"But, since you're the Senshi of the Mind, the one that is not pathetically stupid out of the whole of you, I guess you should know. So your death will hurt even more, when you know what you failed to prevent. You can spend the few days you have left living with that guilt." The smirk works itself into his voice, even if it is not visible. 

The chamber, both impressive and oppressive, spreading out endlessly, supported by countless dark columns, greater than any room she recalled having been in before, with silent figures lining the walls, moving quickly, purposefully. Nothing around her indicates carefreeness, or freedom. It's all a cold, cruel, antiseptic order. 

He leads her onward, violently, stopping in front of an empty pedestal. One of his hands reaches down to his pocket and produces a small crystalline something, buttons included. He pushes one of them and the pedestal suddenly comes to life. 

A beautiful city of glass shimmers in front of her. She makes a motion to touch it; it is beautiful. So beautiful, but her hand goes right through it. 

"Oh gods… even you are stupid. It's a hologram, haven't you ever seen one? Useless senshi... your queen's stupidity must be contagious."

Her hand quickly returns to its position, hanging limply at her side. A hologram… with this definition… a small part of her wishes she could sit down with whoever made it and talk with that person for hours on end. Oh, to create something this precise and beautiful, and…

A larger part of her listens to what Rubeus is saying, however, and watches at the image in the pedestal changes in time with his narrative. "This is Crystal Tokyo, capital of Earth. The Golden Empress, Serenity, rules over it as does her Ginzuishou." That word, said with such hatred really piques her attention. She dedicates her full attention to him, moving her gaze away from the hologram, breaking its spell. "All those who live there have unnaturally long lifespans. We didn't like it. We wanted nothing to do with that Earth. We would create a new Earth. To the past, before the Moon Kingdom's influence started. We went to the past. We would rewrite history. This is our magnificent Replay operation. The recreation of history." His voice takes on a foreign tone, what he is saying are not his words as much as a memorized speech, but there is still a passion inherent to his words. A malicious smile appears upon his face. "Yes. Our Replay operation. Crystal Tokyo is no more, Senshi. It lies in waste, its people dead and its queen encased in her crystal. Our troops triumphed over it. Endymion and the Senshi lie dead, the Queen lies asleep and the Rabbit is gone. But we will find the rabbit, and complete our operation. And no matter what, we shall triumph, and return the Earth to its natural state. 

"The Ginzouishou disrupts what it touches. We shall destroy it alongside with the Rabbit with the power of the Jakozuishou, and then the Earth shall return to the right path. We will change history. The Black Moon family, of Nemesis. We shall rewrite history, and lead Earth back to its rightful path." 

The deep evil laughter the cynical part of her mind expects does not come. Rubeus' eyes swarm out of focus for a moment, as he loses himself in his own visions of glory. 

She shudders once. Rubeus looks down at her, returning to the here and now, smirk in tow He thinks she is afraid, when in truth she is being assaulted by sorrow and anger. 

Anger at these horrible, monstrous beings who toy with the lives of so many. Before there had been some warmth in her heart towards them, as she didn't know their motifs, but what Rubeus has told her now has shattered whatever absolution she might have been willing to grant them. Daring to play with history, to destroy so many lives! Oh, how can they, inhuman beasts that they are. Even if they look human, they surely are not; they have been wrapped past anything that resembles human kindness. 

And what pains her the most is that she can do nothing about any of this. 

She can hear an evil chuckle from somewhere inside herself.

Her dislike for Rubeus reaches a peak level just as his hand grabs her shoulder tightly and pushes her away from the fascinating hologram, now displaying a wrecked mockery of the city of crystal from before. He leads her back to the room, roughly shoving her in after nodding curtly to the guards outside, who in turn bow their heads to him. 

"You will stay here until our Prince decides what to do with you. He might have an use for that supposed intelligence of yours."

The door closes behind him. 

The bed is looking very appealing to her.

Surrendering to her fatigue she moves away from the door and to the bed, and lies down, face up, thinking to herself that it does not matter whether she falls asleep or not, because if anyone in this forsaken world wants to kill her they will do it no matter what. 

Her fuku seems a ridiculous choice for an outfit as she shivers in the cold prevailing in this place. 

*****

i equals the square root of negative one

no number, when multiplied by itself, gives –1 as its answer

so, i does not exist. not in this universe.

call it an imaginary number. 

so many people do already, it's not going to hurt if you do it too.

*****

"I am Sailor Tangerine, defender of love and tanginess throughout the Universe! In the name of the Great Tangerine Tree, I shall punish you!" A young girl, about 15 years of age, wearing a bright orange sailor fuku appeared out of the middle of nowhere, a tangerine made out of patchwork sewn up in the place where the ribbon would have been, her bright orange hair pushed back by two strategically placed hair clips.

"I am Sailor Lemon, defender of peace and citric crops throughout the Universe! On behalf of that which is sour, I shall punish you!" The second girl must have been around 10. She had bright yellow hair, reaching just about her shoulders. Not blond, yellow. As befitting, lemon yellow. A shiny, lemon shaped piece of yellow vinyl was sewn up to her fuku, its short yellow skirt covering almost no skin at all.

"I am Sailor Grapefruit, who watches over those whose life is bitter! In the name of all those whose suffering you have caused, I shall punish you!" This one must have been 13 years old. Her orangish-pink hair trailed behind her, like a cape. A round patch of cloth, made up of an impossible to define color replaced the ribbon in her outfit. Her skirt was pink, but with an orangish tint, and as short as the others. She was wearing platform shoes, which made her about four inches higher than she would have normally been.

"I am Sailor Lime, defender of all that is delicate and juicy! In the name of the Citric Family, I shall punish you!" The last of the four must also have been 13. She had a lovely face, and long lime-green hair, which, as a part of her transformation, had been braided by invisible hands, although with nothing to hold it back, it soon came undone. As is to be expected, a plastic-looking lime substituted the ribbon in her fuku, which looked exactly identical to that of Sailor Tangerine, if it weren't for the color scheme, of bright greens. 

"We are the Citric Sailors! For the love of all things we hold dear, we shall punish you, and send you back to the place were you came from!" All four Citric Sailors struck a pose, smiled and looked around for rabid admirers.

Then they ran around and surrounded their target, a youma shaped like a giant wheat weed, conveying an expression of astonishment in an very credible manner. 

"TANGERINE ACID SURROUND!"

"LEMON SOURNESS ENGULF!"

"GRAPEFRUIT BITTERNESS AFFECT!"

"LIME EXTREME BLISSFULNESS!" 

The youma felt the effect of being hit by acid and three unidentified substances, one right after the other.

A figure watched from a nearby rooftop, and chose that moment to make her grand entrance.

"And I!" she stressed the 'I' very heavily "I am Sailor Marmalade, protector of all things sweet in this universe! Impersonating one of the food groups is a crime no one should ever commit. Think of the confusion it could cause! On behalf of the food groups, I will punish you!"The fifth one was the scariest of them all. She also wore a normal fuku, with something that looked suspiciously like a sticker from a marmalade jar in the middle of her breast, replacing her ribbon. Her red hair, which shone gold here and there was held back by nothing, and thus, kept on falling over her eyes, which were as red as her skirt, which itself was not that far away from being blood colored.

The Citric Sailors stepped away and gave way to their leader, who smiled sweetly, and then screamed "MARMALADE STICKY COATING!"

The youma collapsed and turned into ashes, not before being covered with a reddish substance, which seemed to impair any movement.

The five girls gave a flashy smile to their audience and disappeared amidst a flash of lighting.

In their places, a tangerine, a lemon, a grapefruit, a lime and a jar of "Smucker's Strawberry Preserve" stood.

The audience clapped and cheered for more. 

These Citric Soldiers were just… great. 

Of course, the fact that strawberry is not a citrus, much less when turned into jam didn't bother anyone. 

When you have five girls in fukus, defending love, justice and tanginess, who cares about what they stand for?

Nevertheless, they faded into nothingness as Mizuno Ami came to, once again, in the room with the desk, the bed, and the chess set.

Laying besides her she could make out a jar, filled to the brim with something that felt like water, smelt like water and that she assumed to be water. 

Next to that was another recipient, flatter and wider, holding something she hoped was edible. She would have scanned it with her computer if she could, but it has refused to appear on her hands the last time she tried to summon it into this reality.

She felt an odd twinge envelop her. When she looked down at herself, her skin was blazing blue, and her fuku vanishing in front of her eyes. A few seconds later, she was wearing her school uniform, the clothing she had been wearing before transforming yesterday.

Yesterday. How would her mother deal with this? What would her friends tell her, to explain her absence? Did she even know Ami was gone?

Calculus equations fleetingly crossed her mind, but were replaced with more important thoughts. She was powerless now. Completely, and utterly so. Even if she found Rei, there would be no way for the two of them to escape. 

As a little consolation prize, her henshin pen appeared in her hand, unrequested. She fingered it sadly, looking it over, wondering where all the power she wielded was store. Such a tiny, insignificant object. Such a powerful object.

She looked around the room once again. The maps of the city she now knew was Crystal Tokyo laid undisturbed atop the table, as she had found them. The chess set did likewise. 

Her fingers made a reaching motion for the chess set, delicately picking up one pawn. She twirled it in her hands unconsciously, and then replaced it. She repeated the same strange ritual with all the pieces, then picked up the board, placed it on the ground and started playing against herself. Solely to pass the time. 

As she is deep within her fifth game (black wins 3 to 1) the door opens, and a woman with green hair steps through the threshold, not noticing her. She picks up the scattered papers with some grief, visible mostly in the manner in which she carries herself. Ignoring Ami, she opens drawer after drawer, picking up whatever the owner left in them. As she walks out of the room she turns around and fixes her dark green eyes on Ami's, stopping dead in her tracks.

"You killed her. Rest assured that it will not be forgotten. Nor forgiven. We do not forgive one who kills an Ayakashi sister, Senshi. This planet will be your grave, as yours was Beruche's." Her voice is steady and lined with hatred. "I, Petz, shall kill the Senshi and bring the Rabbit to the Wiseman and to our ruler, Prince Dimando!" Her eyes shine with reverence for a second as she mentions the mystery prince, no longer nameless. Then they are clouded with anger once again as she sends one last contemptuous glance in Ami's way and leaves the room briskly. 

A tear escapes Ami's eye as she sits on the ground, blinking steadily. 

*****

This place was getting to her, dimming her. She fingered the useless henshin pen with apprehension, afraid of what would happen next.

The silence that refused to lift itself, regardless of anything; the odd light illuminating the crystalline rooms; the strange language spoken by the people around her... At least Beryl's generals had spoken Japanese with no problem. The humans here didn't. There was an accent in their speech, a strange reluctantly to pronounce certain sounds as they were supposed to be pronounced. And outside her door, when she heard voices, they always spoke to one another in a strange way. There were words she didn't recognize, words she couldn't understand and strange grammar rules, all of them part of the pseudo Japanese spoken around her.

The door to the room opened, allowing in an extra slice of light, accompanied by the shadow of the person who stood at the other side. Dark hair, pale skin, but nothing else she could see. Simply another product of this planet. It took Ami a few seconds to shake the drowsiness and dullness off her, and attentively listen to her speaker. 

"…Nemesis no Senshi, but then again, you already knew that, didn't you?" Bitter and angry, unidentified still, but undoubtedly female… "No. My sisters and I share the powers of the Senshi of Nemesis. But it was different one day. You think this dark planet is just a recent addition to your Solar System? It isn't. Nemesis was the 10th planet of the Silver Millennium, until the Millennium fell to Metallia." The Japanese was fluent, but the accent still remained.

"The Nemesis Senshi, the Koudou no Senshi. Last of the Outer Senshi, not as powerful as Saturn or Pluto, and lacking a Talisman. Your Golden Empress never liked this forsaken planet, nor did her mother. Sailor Nemesis existed solely to keep the Nemesians happy, as a last resort, should the others fall. But that was just propaganda; everyone knew that Serenity never did trust Nemesis enough to fully empower their Senshi. And that it would make no difference whether she was alive or dead.

"And so the Millennium fell, and so did Sailor Nemesis, and since then there has never been a Koudou no Senshi, although if there were one, she would probably be the Kyuushuu no Senshi nowadays, for Serenity decided that Nemesis did not deserve a Senshi, not after her so called betrayal of the Millennium when Beryl came. Sailor Nemesis died when the Millennium fell, and she was not reincarnated. Your Golden Empress never liked this forsaken planet, never cared about it. 

"And now Petz is dead, and I, Caraveras, am the only remaining sister.

"And I shall kill the Senshi, and bring the rabbit to the Prince of Nemesis."

*****

0 equals 0 equals nothing.

a sad constant, yes?

*****

"Now, let's see, let's see. I need a fitting line here, don't I? Something to go down well with you, or for you to think about. Maybe something to show my humanity? But that would ruin the stereotype, wouldn't it, Seishin no Senshi?

"Nevertheless, it is only fitting… Watashiga korekara surukotowo yurushitene" 

And he left, closing the door behind him, the room instantly wrapped in night. And the woman walked side by side with him, hanging off his shoulder, and he kissed her, and she rubbed her hands along him, and that was the last she ever saw of Caraveras. Rubeus she would see one more time. And then she slowly got up, and tentatively tried to see anything in the darkness around her, but failed to do so. The faint sound of something breathing came close from her left, but she could make out nothing. The smell of rotting flesh suddenly drifted towards her, overpowering anything else she might have been feeling, and for a few moment she stood still, eyes closed, pretty mouth curved into a pretty grimace, trying to ward the stench off, and refusing to accept the limits of her underground prison. 

She opened her eyes again, or at least, she thought so. Holding a hand in front of her face she waved it to and fro, trying to see something, but gave up.

Letting her hearing guide her she moved cautiously towards the left, deliberate step after deliberate step, wishing that there was a wall she could reach out for, trying to forget all about that story she had read involving pendulums, pits and walls that moved inwards. 

She froze suddenly, prey to a sudden attack. Breathing, it was so hard, it hurt. The pain, the smell, the room, the darkness, the night, the place, the everything. The darkness spun around her invisibly, coming closer, leering, snickering, mocking. 

*****

The seconds fickle by, carelessly, one after the other, in their steady march. 

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

The seconds fickle by, carelessly, one after the other, in all their randomness. 

One after the other. 

*****

She regained control of herself after a few moments of uttermost panic, but those were forgotten as coughing came from her left. Hope renewed.

Five or six steps later she stopped and reached down, noticing a change in the texture of the ground. It had suddenly become silky. Shutting her eyes tightly she ran one finger over the ground, and trembled momentarily as she realized that she was indeed standing on someone's hair. Her hand followed one single strand down to its end, and then back again, to the scalp of the owner. She sighed in relief when she found real warm skin, and not a pale imitation. 

"Rei-chan?"

The figure didn't move in any way, nothing indicating its aliveness except from the slow breathing, like that of something hibernating. 

"Rei-chan?" More frantic now, she shook the girl slightly after having located a shoulder to shake. 

"Rei-chan, please, wake up" The shaking itself became more frantic, until a hoarse cough escaped the other girl. 

Rei-chan did not respond with anything more than that.

*****

pi equals the circumference of a circle over the diameter of the circle

if a circle has radius x, the diameter equals 2x

and the circumference is 3.141592265359x 

so pi equals 3.14159265359 yadda yadda yadda.

  
*****

Rei coughs again. She has not eaten anything for a long time. The underground prison, the Room of Darkness, this room is called. A blue haired man mentioned it to Rubeus when they came across him, in the room with the hologram. He looked disapprovingly at Rubeus, commented on the sheer stupidity of parading Sailor Mars around the city and then told him to take her to the underground prison, and leave her there to die. The prince would appreciate that, he said. They wanted dead Senshi. 

Not that Ami knows any of that. Given that Rei is not awake to tell her…

Yet here they are, the two of them, trapped in a circular room. There is nothing to eat or to drink, and there will be nothing to eat or to drink in the near future, at least for them.

If all were to go according to plan (their plan, not that of the Senshi) the creatures that occasionally squeal in the darkness will have something to feed themselves with, as the two of them die. 

The circular room… a circle... the most beautiful shape in the universe. The most perfect one. Given a set perimeter, you can fit more things into a circle than in any other place. Circles are beautiful.

A planet is an oblate spheroid, an almost perfect sphere. There's a flaw to it someplace that forbids it from being perfect.

A meteor is a large rock that orbits around something.

A circle never ends. 

A cycle repeats itself endlessly.

Getting up, Ami tried not to think. If only they had their henshin pens.. if only her computer were working. If only…

So weak. 

She couldn't think of a sole thing she could do, right now, to save herself. She could estimate the volume of the room, and calculate just how much oxygen there was available, and whether she would suffocate to death or starve to death, but such was not an appealing prospect. 

So useless, all of her knowledge. It is not going to save her know. Rationally, there is nothing to do but to sit down and accept her fate. She is going to die, unless a miracle takes place anytime soon.

Do you believe in Miracles, Ami-chan?

Good Evil.

The seconds flicker by, in all their eerie beauty.

The minutes walk by, in all their haunting grace.

The hours crawl by, in all their uncanny splendor.

The days…no, the days don't trickle by. 

Not yet. 

As a strange gas fills the room, Ami suddenly collapses to the ground, unconscious.

*****

e equals the limit as n goes to infinity of (1+r/n)^n/r, where 0r1

if x equals n/r, then the equation becomes (1+1/x)^x

the answer surprisingly being 2.718281827 and then some more

*****

The door to the room is suddenly thrown open, allowing for one sudden blast of blinding light, had anyone been conscious enough to look at it. An angry, struggling Sailor Jupiter, still in her fuku is pushed in by Rubeus and Caraveras, and the door is then locked, while the two of them once again walk down the hallway back to their rooms, Caraveras' arm intertwined with that of Rubeus, as she nibbles his ear playfully, and mutters something that elicits a grin from him. 

Makoto paces around the room angrily, still in her Senshi outfit. She no longer calls out to her powers, as she has tried it many times before, to no avail. 

But her anger still remains, even if she did not get a full tour of the facilities that come attached to the rock known as (the) Nemesis. 

The verdant gas fills the room again, and she joins her unaware and unknown companions on a heap in the ground. 

*****

Drowsily the three of them wake up. Something has just called for them, and they know what that something is. Usagi is near. She's on Nemesis. 

"Jupiter Star Power!"

"Mercury Star Power!"

"Mars Star Power!"

Nothing happens.

The girls collapse to the ground.

*****

yet, beauty requires a formula…

you need to find some sense in the randomness, and find a Miracle floating in the air to make it work. 

e^(i*pi)+1=0

in other words, e to the i pi plus one equals zero. 

*****

They wake up one last time, in the room. They feel the call of Usagi's power again. Groggily getting up, leaning on one another. As Ami sways and moans, Makoto catches her, concerned. And then they all hear Usagi's voice, telling them that they can transform. 

"Jupiter Star Power!"

"Mercury Star Power!"

"Mars Star Power!"

"Make up!!"

And to the shock and dismay of those present in a different room, one above them, the three missing sailor suited fighters of love and justice appear next to their leader.

And in his heart, Rubeus knows that he is going to die soon, because if those pretty girls don't kill him, then the Wiseman will.

Or maybe one of his puppet princes.

He allows himself one final snicker. One of his stupid puppet princes. Had Safiru decided to keep his psychopathic tendencies to himself, nothing of this would have happened. Idiot. The girls would still be safely locked up in the Room of Darkness, and Sailor Moon would be entertaining his Highness. 

And to think that Safiru is supposed to be the brightest of them all…

He sobers instantly. 

Well, what does that say about their plans, then?

He's not given too long an amount of time to search for the answer, as his body is consumed by flames. 

*****

The return to life of the beautiful frozen crystal city is the answer to his question, however.

*****

End notes:

Once again, I have no real explanation for this story. The equation was given to me some time ago by my math teacher, and it's the thing that has awed me the most in the whole year. Get a graphing calculator out, plug in all the values and puzzle yourself as to why it works. 

Watashiga korekara surukotowo yurushitene: forgive me for what I am about to do

Ai: love

Seishin: soul, spirit, mind

Koudou: justice

Kyuushuu: revenge

Comments of any kind are appreciated, constructive or deconstructive, flames or not. 

Version 2.0 differs from the original on the fact that some typos or grammar mistakes have been fixed, and extra words have been added here and there, and removed elsewhere.

narie.

(Brazil, January 26th, 2001)

[bakanarie@hotmail.com][1]

[www.geocities.com/nariee_i/][2]

   [1]: mailto:bakanarie@hotmail.com
   [2]: http://www.geocities.com/nariee_i/



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